bq. “We felt the dress would overpower shorts because it was something you could wear to work,” Ms. [Stephanie] Solomon [a women’s fashion director at Bloomingdale’s] said. But many women are buying shorts instead because, she said, they too “are acceptable now at the office.” (NY Times)

And herewith, a great gripe about the North: it gets to 95F here, just as it does down South. Yet shorts are completely verboten for any sort of occasion more formal than a picnic. Now, I don’t know about courtrooms, but certainly shorts are acceptable at many a Southern church dinner, _because it’s hot_. (There’s also a certain practicality thing for cyclists, called “I don’t want to get my pants dirty.”)

One of the few things I liked about visiting Texas (although I didn’t get to take advantage of it, burdened as I was with completely impractical “work clothes” from up north) is that people have that Southern attitude towards clothing: It’s hot. Wear what you need to.

I’ve always thought women had it easy during summer: they could wear knee-length skirts, which are *much* cooler than pants. And now, they can apparently wear shorts, too. Damn.